Perfect recipe for your hospitalization costs!

Top up plans are generally taken over and above you regular mediclaim in order to increase your total sum assured.

Abhishek Kumar Singh

19 May 2010

Life
is a race, if you don't run fast, you will be like a broken undaa

I
guess everyone remembers these lines. And no points for guessing the
movie. So none of want to end up being a broken undaa!

To
win this race, we start running fast, then faster, and ultimately
become the fastest racer. In the process we loose many things and
one such irreparable loss is of our health. Most of the studies done
worldwide show that the number of heart attacks in India is growing
at an alarming paces and very soon we may be leading the pack.

So
let's have a look at the numbers - India will have 62 million
patients with heart diseases in India by 2015 as compared to 16
million in the US according to CADI (Coronary Artery Disease among
Asian Indians) Research Foundation, California. Thus, the biggest
risk to cover today for every working individual is of the hospital
bills. Most of the health insurance companies offer a maximum sum
assured of Rs. 5 lakhs. This looks good at a younger age but when you
start ageing, then this cover may not be that attractive especially
if you are staying in any of the major metros. .

To
help you cope with your age and lifestyle related demands, a few
general insurance companies offer top up and super top up plans
which enable you to pay for the medical bills over and above your
regular Mediclaim policies.

Lets
look at them in details.

Top
up plans Top up plans
are generally taken over and above you regular mediclaim in order to
increase your total sum assured. Lets see how does a top up plan
works. Suppose you have a mediclaim of Rs. 5 lakhs and you buy a top
up of Rs. 10 lakhs with a threshold of Rs. 5 lakhs. So your total sum
assured goes up to Rs. 15 lakhs (Rs. 5 lakhs of mediclaim + Rs. 10
lakhs of Top up).

Suppose
you get admitted in a hospital and the bill amount is Rs. 7 lakhs.
In this case the first Rs. 5 lakhs will be paid by the regular
mediclaim policy and the top up policy will pay the remaining amount,
which is Rs. 2 lakhs. Thus the insurance companies pay your total
hospital bill amount.

In
case you get admitted to hospital during the same year and your bill
comes to Rs. 8 lakhs. Now there may be two cases, either you have
renewed your mediclaim policy as you had already exhausted the limit
of the same during your last hospitalization or you haven't renewed
the policy.

Case
1: In case you have renewed
the policy, again the Mediclaim will pay you Rs. 5 lakhs and the top
up policy will pay you the remaining Rs. 3 lakhs.

Case
2: In case you have not
renewed the policy, the first Rs. 5 lakhs will be paid by you and the
remaining Rs. 3 lakhs will be paid by the top up policy.

Thus,
a top up policy will pay you every time you get hospitalized during
the term of the policy, over and above the threshold limit chosen by
you while buying the top up policy. Please keep in mind that your
bill should cross the threshold limit every time you get hospitalized
to a maximum of the sum assured of the top up policy.

Super
top up plan A super top
up plan is very similar in structure to the top up policy. It is also
taken to increase the total health insurance cover for an individual.
There is a small difference in the working of both. Lets take the
same example stated above. The first time hospitalization took place
and the bill was Rs. 7 lakhs, the Mediclaim will pay Rs. 5 lakhs and
super top up plan will pay Rs. 2 lakhs. The next time when you get
admitted, and the bill crosses Rs. 8 lakhs, the super top up policy
will pay you the entire Rs. 8 lakhs (as your sum assured was Rs.10
lakhs and you had only used Rs. 2 lakhs in the earlier
hospitalization), and not Rs. 3 lakhs as in case of top up plan.

So
in case, you are unable to renew the Mediclaim policy due to any
reason after the first hospitalization, you won't have to pay any
amount from you pocket as all the expenses will be take care off by
the super top up plan..

These
top up and super top up plans have come at a time when the medical
costs are escalating at a very high pace. Thus a combination of a
regular Mediclaim with a top up policy is the best option to take
care of all your medical expenses arising out in future.

Get Health Insurance Proposals

Upto 5 providers will offer you alternative proposals based on Mar 2018 premiums